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Re: [rain1 at airmail dot cc] Delete abortion joke
On Tue, 2018-05-08 at 13:36 -0300, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> On May 8, 2018, "Carlos O'Donell" <carlos@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> > As a GNU package maintainer for glibc you have accepted the responsibility
> > to maintain glibc, this includes '5. Recruting Developers', do you believe
> > that this joke helps or hinders recruiting developers?
>
> You didn't ask for my opinion, but...
>
> I think it hardly matters.
I think it hinders. Several people spoke out against it, on this
mailing list. Fewer people have said that they don't mind keeping it,
but only a minority has said that they think it helps. Even you don't
say it helps. That gives pretty clear indication.
> The tempest in a teapot and the insulting attitude towards another
> maintainer,
Please stop claiming that people have insulted him -- or at least try to
give a somewhat objective reasoning why that should be the case.
> namely Richard Stallman, is certain to push some people
> away. OTOH, in other groups, demeaning him seems to be quite popular,
> so it might also attract members of that group, but I really don't think
> we want more of those.
There was a discussion, and even if we ignore whether consensus existed
initially, it seems pretty obvious now that the majority of people who
have spoken out are in favor of removing the "joke". IOW, the
community's consensus process was followed, and a decision was made.
Why should that push anyone away?
What also happened, though, is that RMS showed up and that said that the
community's consensus process wouldn't apply, that he'd have the last
say, always, if he wanted, and that the arguments and opinions of a
majority of the active developers don't matter.
That will push people away, because it undermines the community.